Swap Swag

Received my hand dyed swap package on Friday, which was a great boost to a fairly bad work day. I love it all, ginger soap and bath bomb, chocolate and purple yarn. What more do you need?

New Kitten in the House

We have added another kitty to the house named Tinkerbell. She is so little and it is so funny to see her near my big boy Raja. He is about 20 pounds and Tink is only about 6. She is pretty fun.

When will I blog with any regularity?

I love the idea of a blog. Even if no one else ever read anything. I get so caught up with getting through everyday that I don't take time to reflect or document anything. I haven't scrapbooked anything since I started my job 18 months ago. Not that I was a huge scrapbooker, fiber stuff has always come first (which explains why I have gotten knitting projects done, but not scrapbooks). So I am going to post a little photo montage here with a few things that have been going on.

Hooray

Well, I finally got my sock swap yarn, and boy was it worth the wait. The yarn is beautiful, and she sent stitch markers, DPN holder, a mini keychain sock blocker, a sample bottle of eucalan and a Latern Moon project bag!!!!! Ironically, the colorway she sent is my favorite one that I have been dyeing for years. But I still love it. And the Latern Moon bag is in my favorite lime green. I am so happy. Pictures later today.

The good news and the bad news...

This has not been a stellar week. I have had issues with my neck and right shoulder that just isn't getting better and has a way of triggering migraines. Both of which seriously impact precious and limited knitting time. Sigh. Fortunately knitting doesn't aggravate my shoulder. So I have made some progress on my Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I am knitting it in Knit Picks Ambrosia, 80% Alpaca/20% cashmere. I am really enjoying it, when I get to work on it. It is soft and luscious and cozy. Not something you would think you could knit in August, but it hasn't exactly been a warm summer here in Oregon.

And I do have to confess myself really disappointed in the hand dyed yarn swap. Can you still call it a swap if you never got anything? The deadline has come and gone, and no email saying they'd be late or anything. I feel abandoned. And I mailed mine well over two weeks ago and my swap pal never posted anything about it. I guess they didn't like it? They said they liked tree and ocean colors. I made a sock yarn in shades of green. Many shades or green, from bright emerald to aqua and many other shades. I know I didn't add as much stuff and some folks did (books and needles and all kinds of things), but I did include stitch markers and needle holders. Oh, well. Chalk that up to an internet flub.

Dyeing to Knit

Well, I have my swap pals yarn dyed and just need to send it off. It will probably be Friday before I can get to the post office though. I have been working 12 hour days this week. But I am taking Friday off, since my Mom is coming to visit. Unfortunately the really long days mean that I am too tired to knit in the evenings. Sigh. I am expecting some Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in natural tomorrow or the next day. I want to knit the Starsky pattern from Knitty. Will I be able to knit with undyed wool? I have never managed it before. I always end up dyeing it. Hmm. Well this is mighty random, but again, very tired am I.

Hand dyed yarn swap

Well I took the plunge and joined the hand dyed yarn swap. I am really excited about it all. I have needed a reason to do some more dyeing, and lets face it, once I drag all the stuff out, it isn't hard to dye up a bunch of stuff. That or to finally set up a permanent dye space in the basement. If only there were more hours in the day.

Swaps and Ravelry

So, I put my name in for Ravelry just for the heck of it, since everyone has been making such a fuss. And now that I am on there I totally get it. Ravelry is soooo cool. My favorite thing to do right now is pattern searching. I still need to enter my projects and stash, but a bit at a time. Very cool.

And I signed up for my first sock yarn swap and am very excited.

Maybe I will get some work done on Icarus tonight. We'll see.

Summer is too busy

I wish I could say I have been knitting a lot, but that just isn't so. Between work and summer activities, only the sock I knit during my lunches is making progress. And we have company again this weekend. So off to clean up the house for that. Maybe if we watch a movie I can knit a bit. Sigh.

Sock Cuff

So all I have managed to create is the cuff of one sock. Sad, that's what that is. Too tired to pick up the sticks. Hopefully this weekend I can make some progress. I am definitely in the head space where I don't have enough energy to knit, so I look at yarn catalogs. Sigh. Maybe this weekend.

Lace Anyone

So I started a new job 7 months ago, and well it has been like having a new baby. At first you think nothing will ever be the same and there will never be free time for anything (when wild thing #1 was born I thought I would never read another book again, then I learned to read during 2 am feedings). After the big event you slowly incorporate the previous activities of your life back into it. Maybe not so often or ambitious as when there was more time, but slowly it comes back. So my knitting with this new job was pretty much stockinette socks and a couple of kid sweaters knit on the weekends. Nothing challenging and certainly no charts. But the bug hit me (okay it was the Faith at the Knitting Cook's Swallowtail Shawl that set me off), and I knew my Knitpicks Gloss needed to be a shawl. The Swallowtail Shawl in a recent Interweave Knits had short repeats. It seemed like a doable small project.Especially if I used fingering weight instead of laceweight yarn. It turned out wonderfully (isn't blocking grand?!) and once I figure out how to post a photo I will. Of course the Swallowtail is a very small shawl, really a triangular scarf, but I am ready to go on lace all of a sudden. Icarus from IK Summer 2006 is now on the needles and making progress. It's slow, but I am trying again. Yeah me.